BUDGET FRIENDLY CANISTERS FOR THE KITCHEN

The work of making over my kitchen has begun.  I'm hoping to have it ready to share  with you sometime next week.  I've been gathering new items for the room over the past few months. Sometimes my friends tell me my nickname should be Mrs. Goodwill Hunting, because I'm always hunting for good used items at thrift stores such as Goodwill.  Let me show you my most recent find at Goodwill.

I found this set of canisters for $ 8.99.  The smallest canister was $10.99 and the larger $19.99 at my local Fred Meyer store.  That is a total of $ 33.62 with taxes, making it a savings of $24.63!  I'm pretty excited about this thrifty find.  Have you found any great thrifty finds lately?

MAKING OVER A ROOM

Do you ever change your mind in the midst of planning a makeover?  When I'm going to make over a room, I start gathering inspirational photos from magazines, blogs and Pinterest. The first major thing is to pick a color theme for the room.  I search for items for the room at thrift stores, garage sales and clearance sales.  Piecing an inspiration board together is part of the process, however sometimes I make a u-turn in the plans.  I'll find a new item that will work better for the room; and it's something that both my husband and I love.  That's what has happened with my kitchen plans.  Originally I was thinking along the lines of gray or blue gray walls with accents of yellow and white.  That was until I found four curtain panels and a matching valance at the thrift store.  We both enjoy coffee along with the colors of the sea.  These curtain panels is a perfect blend of these themes. 

Thus a change in plans.... I'll still be using some accents of white and yellow but just in a little different way than I first thought.

 (First inspiration)

There's always the challenge of a small budget and working with what I have, and no structural changes in a home you don't own. How can I make the room look new and fresh without any major money spent.  My plan is to begin the process this week.  

 Things to be done...

 - paint the room

 -makeover the curtains

- create new accents/decor for the room

-wash cabinets and woodwork

I'll keep you posted on the progress of the room makeover!

EASTER/SPRING DECOR

With Easter fast approaching, I thought I'd show you one more area where I've added some Spring/Easter decor.  I used items from around the house to create this vignette.  The idea came to me when I came across a toy from my childhood while working on cleaning up our storage room.  When I saw it, I thought this would be great to put out for spring. I don't believe in the Easter bunny, but I love baby bunnies and baby chicks.  Growing up on the farm, these little animals were always a sign of spring.

Here's the vignette that I place in our Hoosier cabinet.

Notice the spots on the cart due to the age of the toy.  I think it adds some unique character.  Adding a few eggs and grass dress it up just a bit more.

I also added the little silver cup that I used as a child.  The Peter Rabbit book holds many memories of reading it to our children when they were small.

A twenty-five cent garage sale bowl sits on the top shelf with grass and eggs inside to mimic a nest.

May you all have a great weekend and 

Blessed Easter 

 I'll be celebrating Easter with great thankfulness...

Thankful for such a loving God  who sent his

 Only Begotten Son 

to die 

on the cross for my sins...

Rejoicing that He has Risen!

SPRING CENTERPIECE

This spring we've had so many dark and rainy days.  I decided I needed to add something to our home to give us a little cheer and brightness.  I've been working on collecting items for this little project including Starbucks coffee jars, flowers and a wooden box.  I've been watching the thrift stores for an old wooden wine box but haven't found any.  My husband could make one, but has not had the time to do so.  On my last trip to the thrift store, I found a box for .49 and decided it could work. 

 Here's what I came up with.

The Gerber daisies were purchased when marked down 50% making them $2.99.  They were on a bush; and I just cut them off and put a stem or two in each bottle.

Total cost for the project $ 3.50 !

As you know, Picnik photo editing has been discontinued.  I found the photo editing program  PicMonkey, and thought I'd give it a try.  It has some fun features for editing.

(I'm not being paid to promote this site, but thought I'd tell you about it 

in case you're looking for a photo editing program.)

Here's what I did while playing around with it.

Have a great spring day!

I'm linking this post to...
Best DIY Projects of April - Beneath My Heart

DIY by Design: Bunny Blog Hop

NEST FRAMED ARTWORK - DIY

Over the past week, I've been slowly putting out my spring and Easter decorations.  I decided it would be nice to have a new piece, so last evening I browsed the house for what I had to make something new. 

In the spring time of the year, you think of things coming to life, flowers blooming, trees budding and eggs sitting in a nest ready to hatch.  With that in mind....

 Here's what I came up with.

Here's items I found around the house to make this project.

11 X 14 canvas 

11 X 14 frame (previous used elsewhere in the house)

burlap cloth remnant

drop cloth remnant 

transfer paper

eggs

bird nest

moss

Here's what I did with these items.

Printed off the word Nest and its meaning onto the 

transfer paper.

I then ironed it onto a piece of drop cloth fabric, a remnant left from when I made my drop cloth curtains.

The next step was to staple the fabric to the top 1/4 of the canvas, and the burlap on the lower 3/4 of the canvas.

I left the frayed edge of the burlap exposed because

 I liked the texture it added.

Next it was time to add the embellishments.

I glued eggs into the nest and attached them to the burlap using hot glue.  I then took a little piece of moss and a few small twigs and added them with glue as well.

Here's how it turned out.

Total cost zero dollars because I used what I had!

 For now it's sitting on the cabinet in our dinning room next to the two little chicks that I found at the hardware store this spring.  I'm not sure if I should keep it here or find a wall to hang it on.

Have you made any new projects for spring?  I'd love to see what you've been up to.

I'm linking up this post and joining these parties:

Twice Owned Tuesday @ House of Grace 
Blue Cricket Design Linky Party 
DIY by Design: Bunny Blog Hop 
Coastal Charm: Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Dear Lillie: Easter Linky Party 

LAUNDRY ROOM MAKEOVER {part 2}

Remember how I told you that I've been working on a surprise in my laundry room.  I've been enjoying the subway art that many of you have been creating.  It was while painting my laundry room that an idea sprang to mind.  I wanted a little something more than just plain boring painted walls, and thought: why not create a "subway art wall" or "wall of words".  So that's just what I've done using the words!

Laundry, Wash, Dry, Fold, Repeat

This project was very labor intensive, but was of no cost to me since I used scrapbook paper I already had on hand.  Originally I thought I'd make my own stencil using contact paper and my cricut machine, but because the walls are textured it didn't work well.  What I did instead was cut out letters using my cricut machine.

Here's how I did it.  Using a level, I positioned the printed out paper as a template with a level.  I then added the words adhering them by spraying the backs with re-positional spay glue.  After I was sure where I wanted the words to stay ( level and not repeating the same words twice in a row.), I glued them to the wall using an inexpensive homemade wall paper glue.  This is a recipe from my mom that we used when I was a child.
 

Homemade Wallpaper Glue Recipe

Boil 1 cup of water,

 in another dish mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch 

adding a small amount of cold water.

  When the water comes to a boil add the cornstarch mixture. 

 When a consistency of wall paper glue is reached, your glue is ready.  If it becomes to thick just add a little more cold water.

Using a small paint brush, I brushed the glue on the back of each letter.

The best tool to get the letters positioned correctly was a tweezers.

Here's a reminder of what the wall looked like before.

Here's how it looks now.

Sorry about the quality of the photos.

It was very difficult to get good photos of this wall because of poor lighting (no outside light source/windows) and because the room is so small.

The color of the room is a blue gray color,

Clark + Kensington paint from Ace Hardware.

DOVER GRAY

Total cost for the room so far

 paint - free

 letter/words = Zero dollars!

I still have a few more projects that I'm working on for this room.  I hope to share them with you soon.

I'm linking this post and joining these linky parties...


Simply Klassic Home Sunday Linky party
Between Naps on the porch - Metamorphosis Monday 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm
Making the World Cuter Monday Link up Party 
At Home with K - Terrific Under 10 Tuesday 
Tuesday's Treasures - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia 
Best DIY Projects of March Linky - Beneath My Heart 
Thrifty Decor Chic - Before and After Party

LAUNDRY ROOM ARTWORK DIY

Today I had a little time to work on some new art for our laundry room.  I'm trying to makeover this room for the least amount of money, so thrifty Joy shopped the house for items to use.

Here is what I found.

Two canvas framed art purchased at a garage sale last spring for .25 cents each.  When I saw these, I knew I would use them for some art work, but just not sure where.  I had them tucked away with my craft supplies.

I also found a remnant of white duck fabric and

transfer paper left over from a previous project.  

I began the project by taking a sharpie marker and extending the black from the frame sides onto the front of the print.  I did this so there wouldn't be any of the photo showing on the sides of the print.  I also touched up a few nicks on the sides of the frame.

I then cut the duck fabric to the same size as area of the frame.  I found some laundry images at Graphics Fairy blog and printed them off.  Important- make sure to flip the photo image before printing it onto the transfer paper (otherwise your wording will be backwards on your art work).  I then ironed the transfer paper onto the cloth, and then applied it to the canvas using an adhesive spray glue.

Here's a close up of the print.  I like how it has the 

texture of  canvas.

Here they are hanging in the laundry room.

Total cost of this project = 50 cents, plus a few pennies for the leftover fabric and transfer paper.
It's great to get this room all fresh and clean for spring.

In my next post, I'll share the secret project that I've been working on in the room, so make sure to come back and take a peak!

I'm linking this post to

The Spring Craft Party @ Centsational Girl

AK Design DIY Linky party